Thursday, 31 July 2008

Romeo is Bleeding [1994]

Romeo is Bleeding is an exceedingly violent, over-stylized and distressing modern day noir, starring Gary Oldman, a respected though underrated character actor seen mostly in supporting roles, as the protagonist and the narrator of the story. He is a New York City cop with a lovely wife, a doting mistress and a good job. But he dreams of making big, monetarily that is; so he does dirty jobs for the Russian mafia on the sly in return for fat tips. But then he is asked to “take care of” a Russian over-sexed assassin – a sultry femme fatale who turns out to be more than a handful for him. Things thus take a horrible turn for him and soon he finds his life in complete shambles. Lena Olin, as the seductress is too violent, perverse and thoroughly repelling, and it’s a surprise that any smart, crooked cop with a decent sized brain would fall for her. The plot is engaging, but the tone is too unnecessarily bleak, pungently cynical and hopelessly shallow to be captivating. The only saving grace is Oldman’s brilliant turn as a brooding loner and an amoral anti-hero who realizes his foibles a tad too late. The final scene, too, is well presented; one can only hope that if only things had turned out a little differently (make that a lot) in the remaining movie as well, watching the movie wouldn't have turned out a disappointing experience.

You must be one helluva kind-hearted guy if you give this movie a 4 ;) And well, honestly speaking, i too have watched quite a few movies which i might give a 4 in my review even though it might not deserve more than a 1 or 2. Thats the beauty of cinema i guess.